
s 



n 



immm 



amummm 



^ 



!»■ » 



'jjmiiWMirwrfi'Hwtnii 



f LIBRARY OF MiNGRESS. I 






^ UNITED STATES UF AMERICA. 



r ^iy. 



^^'^] 











■^,-^ 









iJir_ 












15-7;^ 






GOLDEN GEMS 



FROM VARIOUS AUTHORS. 



COMPILED BY 



MARIA G. BRADLEY. 







IBosion: 4 ^^"' 

Published by 0. JJotkrop & Co. • 

(Z)w5r, J^. H.: G. T. (bay &- Co. 



1378. 






Entered according to Act of Ccr.gress, in the jear 1873, 

By MARIA G. Bli^VDLEY, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



BocKWELL & CnuBcinLL, Printers, 

liusluii. 



Note. 

The selections from Miss Larcom, Messrs. 
Longfellow, Whittier and Lowell, are made 
by permission, from the copyright editions of the 
works of those authors, published by Messrs. 
James R. Osgood & Co., Boston. The selections 
from the Misses Gary's works are used through 
the kindness of Messrs. Houghton & Co., Cam- 
bridge, Mass. The remaining collections are used 
through the courtesy of their publishers, or taken 
from their original sources. 

M. G. B. 



"In the course of our reading, we should lay 
up in our minds a store of goodly thoughts in 
well-wrought words, which should be a living 
treasure of knowledge always with us, and from 
which, at various times, and amidst all the shift- 
ing of circumstances, we might be sure of draw- 
ing some comfort, guidance, and sympathy." 

[Friends in Council. 
4 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 



PAGE 

A Gem 13 

Affection t • ^5 

Absence 26 

Action 36 

Affectation 43 

Act.. 43 

Ambition 44 

Affection. . '. 53 

Acts 58 

Acquaint thyself with Him, and be at peace 82 

A Vagary 86 

Across the River 91 

Advice 106 

Affliction loS 

Au Revoir 114 

Beauty 19 

Brave 21 

Burdens. ; *,..■ 24 

Blush 30 

Benevolence 33 

Birth 35 

Beauty 37 

Beauty 38 

Blessing?. 40 

Benefits 41 

Bitter and Sweet 41 

Beauty 57 

Bereavement 64 

Blessings 69 

Books 71 

Battle Hymn 78 

Books 93 

Benefits of Adversity 107 

6 



6 ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 

PAGE 

Counsel 20 

Consistency 21 

Cupid's Bow 21 

Contentment 3° 

Changes 33 

Cheei^ulness 35 

Charm of Conversation 35 

Charity ' 37 

Conscience .' 40 

Care 45 

Courage 46 

Charity at Christmas 47 

Curiosity 47 

Crosses , 54 

Children 62 

Character 62 

Creator 77 

Cross and Crown 100 

Courage 107 

Close of Life io8 

Company 109 

Character 109 

Death 18 

Duty 19 

Death 35 

Disappointment 37 

Duty 40 

Difficulties , 45 

Duties 107 

Error 14 

Evil 19 

Eyes..'. 53 

Evening Prayer 56 

Envy 70 

Endurance , 83 

Education 9S 

Endymion - no 

Faith and Works ij 

Fame 16 

Favors 17 

Freedom Vigilant i8 

Flattery ig 

Fruitful 20 

Fidelity 24 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 7 

PAGE 

Fortitude • • ■ • • ^'^ 

Fame ^^ 

Fortitude. •• ^^ 

Forgiveness ■ ^ 

FareweH ^ 

Farewell ; • " ■* 

Friendship '^^ 

Friends ^' 

Forgiveness ^ 

Failure '^° 

Faith ; ^9 

Fancy ' 

Friendship ' ^'^ 

Fountain of Light • • °^ 

Firmness 

Goodness ^ 

Good Angels ; " ' ^^ 

Grave • ^^ 

Gratitude 33 

Genius ^^ 

Great •• • '^'^ 

Guide ^^5 

Gold S3 

Good Commencement • S4 

Golden Year "^^ 

Gay Scenes • ^9 

Good Night 73 

Great and Fortunate 77 

Holiness ' ^7 

H ope • ^ ^ 

Help 32 

Heart • 3^ 

Hope • 36 

Honesty ••.■.■ - • 37 

Hope 38 

Happiness 4° 

Habits 54 

Heaven — ■" °5 

Harvest ^^ 

Heaven ' 



66 

Happiness °9 

Humility : 7^ 

Hymn • 98 

Hints ^°S 



8 ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 

PAGE 

Honor 109 

Imitation 14 

Ignorance of Futurity a Blessing 27 

Imaginary Evils 42 

111 S3 

If I could say " How Happy." 69 

Impulses 77 

Immortality 81 

Ignorance 108 

Justice 63 

Justice 67 

Joy 68 

Judgment 83 

Knowledge 19 

Kindness. 33 

Knowledge 44 

Kindness 67 

Lay of Life 18 

Love..... 26 

Learning 26 

Love 29 

Love 31 

Life 34 

Liberty 39 

Life 43 

Learning 44 

Life 57 

Loveliness 58 

Lines from the German of Lamiter 59 

Lord, to whom shall we go? 79 

Life ' too 

Longing 104 

Life Checkered 106 

Modesty 14 

Mind 20 

Music 23 

Misery 23 

Music 24 

Mercy 28 

Money 29 

Merit 30 

Music 31 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 9 

PAGE 

Malice 32 

Meditation • 38 

Manners 39 

Memory 4^ 

Milton in his Old Age 47 

Moderation 49 

Mary Magdalene • S° 

Moments 54 

Merits 6° 

Memory "^ 

My Creed '°2 

Mental Elevation '06 

Manners Contagious ^°9 

Memory • • '°9 

NobleDeed • ^5 

Nature and Art 4i 

Nature 42 

Never Part in Anger 49 

New England ^^ 

New England ^7 

Nothing Lost • 77 

Opportunity SS 

Opinions 57 

Old Age ^S 

Procrastination 20 

Power of Poetry .■ 22 

Praise 26 

Prayer 39 

Prudence 4' 

Past and Future 43 

Patience 55 

Present 59 

Pass On 61 

Psalm 72 

Poetry 7^ 

Practice 80 

Perseverance 9° 

Personal Idealization 100 

Pleasantry • '°9 

Quarrels 72 

Reason 22 

Resignation 22 



lO , ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 

PAGE 

Resolution ^3 

Riches 4^ 

Rest S3 

Repose 52 

Real 54 

Reconciliation ^^ 

Religion 7° 

Religion °' 

Remorse S8 

Sculpture 'S 

Speaking 111 i7 

Selfishness ^7 

Sorrow 21 

Solitude 23 

Strength 34 

SoHtude 36 

Sympathy 37 

Sleep 39 

Sound 40 

Society 4° 

Sabbath 49 

Self-Government 52 

Silence 62 

Speech 63 

Studies 76 

Sin 81 

Spring Concert S3 

Simplicity and Purity 108 

Sympathy 112 

Shadow and Sunshine 112 

True Greatness 14 

Trust IS 

Truth 22 

Thinking 30 

Tears 38 

Time Lost 39 

The Mind 47 

Trades 54 

Talents 55 

True 55 

Travel 56 

The Shadows of Life 56 

There 60 

The Nearest Duty 63 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. II 

PAGE 

The Law of Manhood 6^ 

Trifles 70 

The Past 72 

The Old Man's Darling 7^ 

To the Sea 76 

The Partirg • 87 

The Street Beggar 87 

The Golden Now ■ 8S 

The Eternal Goodness 04 

The Noble Nature rg 

Time 106 

True Love jn 

Virtue 16 

Vengeance 27 

Vanity 4, 

Victory 57 

Vexations 70 

Value r. So 

Valiant go 



Virtue. 



99 



Value of Time 106 

Wait jS 

Woman 3^ 

Welcome 40 

Writing 4^ 

\|fhatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might 45 

What makes a Man cj 

Wisdom J, 

Wait ::; ,, 

Worth 55 

Wise 70 

We've had our Share of Bliss S3 

Youth 7- 



GOLDEN GEMS. 



A Gem. 

If a pilgrim has been shadowed 

By a tree that I have nursed ; 

If a cup of clear, cold water 

I have raised to lips athirst ; 

If I've planted one sweet flower 

By an else too barren way ; 

If I've whispered in the midnight 

One sweet word to tell of day ; 

If, in one poor bleeding bosom, 

I a woe-swept chord have stilled ; 

If a dark and restless spirit 

I with hope of Heaven have filled ; 

If I've made for life's hard battle 

One faint heart grow warm and strong, 

Then my God 1 I thank Thee — bless Thee 

For the precious gift of song. 

Mary Louise Chitwood, 

13 



14 golden gems. 

True Greatness. 

He that can understand and delight in greatness, 

was created to partake of it; the germ, is in him; 

and sometimes this admiration, in what we deem 

inferior minds, discovers a nobler spirit than belongs 

to the great man who awakens it; for sometimes 

the great man is so absorbed in his own greatness, 

as to admire no other; and I should not hesitate to 

say, that a common mind, which is yet capable of a 

generous admiration, is destined to rise higher than 

the man of eminent capacities, who can enjoy no 

power or excellence but his own. 

Channing. 

Imitation. 

Imitation is the sincerest of flattery. 

Colton^ 

Modesty. 
Modesty is to merit, as shades to figures in a 

picture, giving it strength and beauty. 

Bruyer. 

Error. 
A man should never be ashamed to own he has 
been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other 
words, that he is wiser to-day than he was yesterday. 

Pope. 



golden gem.s. is 

Faith and Works. 
Faith and works are as necessary to the spiritual 
life of the Christian, as soul and body are to our 
life as men ; 'for faith is the soul of religion and 
works the body. Colton. 

Sculpture. 
Sculpture is frozen music. Goethe. 

Trust. 
I KNOW not if or dark or bright 

Shall be my lot ; 
If that wherein my hopes delight 

Be best or not. 

It may be mine to drag for years 

Toil's heavy chain, 
Or day and night my meat be tears 

On bed of pain. 
Dear faces may surround my hearth 

With smiles and glee, 
Or I may dwell alone, and mirth 

Be strange to me. 

My bark is waftjed to the strand 

By breath divine ; 
And on the helm there rests a hand 

Other than mine. 



l6 GOLDEN GEMS. 

One who has known in storms to sail, 

I leave on board ; 
Above the raging of the gale, 

I hear my Lord. 

He holds me when the billows smite, 

I shall not fall ; 
If sharp, 'tis short; if long, 'tis light — 

He tempers all. 

Safe to the land — safe to the land — 

The end is this ; 
And then with Him go hand in hand 

Far into bliss. 

Dean of Canterbury. 

Fame. 
The way to fame, is like the way to heaven, 
through much tribulation. Sterne. 

Virtue. 
Fly from the crowd, and be to virtue true. Con- 
tent with what thou hast, tho' it be small. 

Chaucer. 

Goodness. 
True goodness is like the glow-worm ; it shines 
most when no eyes, except those of heaven are 
upon it. Arion. 



golden gems. 17 

Favors. 
Many favors which God giveth us, ravel out for 
want of hemming, through our own unthankfulness, 
for through prayer purchaseth blessings, giving praise 
doth keep the quiet possession of them. 

Thomas Fuller. 
Speaking III. 
When men speak ill of you, live so that nobody 
will believe them. Burke. 

Holineiss. 
Art thou beautiful ? Live, then, in accordance 
with the curious work and fiame of the creation, 
and let the beauty of thy person teach thee to beau- 
tify thy mind with holiness, the ornament of the 
beloved of God. Penn. 

Good Angels. 
Is it not strange, the way in which good angels 
seem to take up the thread of our dropped hopes 
and endeavors, and wind them up for us, we know 
not how, till it is all done? 

Miss Muloch. 
Selfishness. 
He that is sensible of no evil but what he feels, 
has a hard heart; and he that can spare no kind- 
ness from himself, has a narrow soul. 

Collier. 
3 



l8 GOLDEN GEMS. 

Freedom Vigilant. 
Twine round thee threads of steel, like thread on 

thread, 
That grow to fetters, or bind down thy arms 
With chains concealed in chaplets. Oh, not yet 
Mayst thou embrace thy corselet, nor lay by 
Thy sword ; not yet, O Freedom, close thy lids 
In slumber ; for thine enemy never sleeps. 
And thou must watch and combat till the day 
Of the new earth and heaven. 

Bryant. 

Lay of Life. 
Why stand ye lingering in the light 
On life's chill, cheerless waste ? 
Without your shadow falling there 
It's dark enough at best 
The wail of sorrow-saddened hearts 
Forbids your standing still ; 
So if you cannot lend a hand 
Make room for those who will. 

Win. Brewster. 

Death. 
Death once seen at our jiearth, leaveth a shadow 
whicli abideth there forever. 

Lady Willotighby. 



golden gems. i9 

Duty. 
What are the aims which are at the same time 
duties in life ? The perfecting of ourselves and the 
happiness of others. Jean Paul. 

Flattery. 
'Tis an old maxim in the schools 
That flattery's the food for fools ; 
Yet now and then your men of wit, 
Will condescend to take a bit. 

Swift. 

Evil. 
Evil is like the night-mare, the instant you bestir 
yourself it has already ended. 

^ Jean Paul Richter. 

Beauty. 

Thus was beauty sent from heaven, 

The lovely ministress of truth and good, 

In this dark world ; for truth and good are one, 

And beauty dwells in them and they in her 

With like participation. 

Akenside. 

Knowledge. 
For man loves knowledge, and the beams of truth 
More welcome touch his understanding's eye, 



20 GOLDEN GEMS. 

Than all the blandishments of sound his ear, 
Than all of taste his tongue. 

Akenside. 

Counsel. 
Good counsel is like unto well-water, that must be 
drawn up with a pump or bucket ; ill counsel is like 
to conduit-water, which if the cork be but turned 
runs out alone. Bishop Hall. 

Fruitful. 

There is nothing fruitful but sacrifice. 

M. Lamenmas. 

Mind. 

Different minds 
Incline to different objects, one pursues 
The vast alone, the wonderful, the wild ; 
Another sighs for harmony, and grace 
And gentlest beauty. 

Akenside. 

Procrastination. 
Procrastination is the thief of time, 
Year after year it steals, till all are fled 
And to the mercies of a moment leaves 
The vast concourse of an eternal scene. 

Young. 



golden gems. 21 

Sorrow. 

The darkest day 
Lives till to-morrow will have passed away. 

Cowper. 

Brave. 

'Tis not too late to-morrow to be brave 

If honor bids. Armstrong. 

Consistency. 

Consistent characters are those which in social 
intercourse are easy, sure, and gentle. We do not 
clash with them, and they are never wanting nor 
contradictory to themselves ; their stability incites 
confidence, their frankness induces self-surrendering 
openness. We feel at ease with them, we are not 
offended at their superiority, doubtless we admire 
them less, but we also hardly dream of feeling en- 
vious of them, and they seem almost to disdain ma- 
lignity by the peaceful influence of their presence. 

Degerando. 

Cupid's Bow. 

Cupid's bow is, the Asiatics tell us, strung with 
bees, which are apt to sting sometimes fatally, those 
who meddle with it. Miss Eds:eworth. 



22 golden gems. 

Reason. 
Unprovoked and calm 
You reason well, see as you ought to see, 
And wonder at the madness of mankind : 
Seiz'd with the common rage, you soon forget 
The speculations of your wiser hours. 

Armstrong. 

Truth. 

Truth is the only real lasting foundation for 

friendship, in all but truth there is a principle of 

decay and dissimulation. 

Miss Helen Edgeworth. 

Resignation. 
But on he moves to meet his latter end, 
Angels around befriending virtue's friend ; 
Sinks to the grave with unperceived decay, 
While resignation gently slopes the way ; 
And all his prospects bright'ning to the last, 
His heaven commences, ere the world be past! 

Goldsmith. 

Power of Poetry. 
Poetry can make even the thought of death beau- 
tiful, and the sadness of bereavement not without a 
certain pleasure. Great poets have elicted from the 



GOLDEN GEMS. 23 

sternest suffering a principle of enjoyment. Sublime 
faith and earnest love can conjure spirits the most 
lovely from the darkest abyss. Tuckcrman. 

Music. 
There is a charm, a power, that sways the breast, 
Bids every passion revel or be still, 
Inspires with anger, or all your cares dissolves ; 
Can soothe distraction and most despair. 
That power is music. Armstrong. 

Misery. 
Misery still delights to trace 
Its semblance in another's case. 

Cozuper. 

Resolution. 
Resolution is the youngest and dearest daughter 
of Destiny, and may win from the fond mother almost 
any favor she chooses to ask. LowclL 

Solitude. 
Hail mildly, pleasing solitude. 
Companion of tlie wise and good, 
But from whose holy, piercing eye, 
The herds of fools and villains fly ; 
Oh ! how I love with thee to walk, 
And listen to thy whispered talk, 



24 GOLDEN GEMS. 

Which innocence and truth imparts, 
And meets the most obdurate hearts. 

Thomson. 

Fidelity. 
Every one that flatters thee, 
Is no friend in misery ; 
Words are easy, like the wind, 
Faithful friends are hard to find. 

Shakespeare. 

Burdens. 

Strive 
In oifices of love how me may lighten 
Each other's burden. Milton. 

Fortitude. 
With affection's warm, intense, refined ; 
She mixed such calm and hoi}'' strength of mind. 
That, like heaven's image in the smiling brook, 
Celestial peace was pictured in her look. 

Campbell. 

Music. 
It rose, that chanted mournful strain, 
Like some lone spirit's o'er the plain ; 
'Twas musical, but sadly sweet, 
Such as when winds and harp-strings meet, 



GOLDEN GEMS. 2$ 

And take a long unmeasur'd tone, 

To mortal minstrelsy unknown. Byron. 



Grave. 

The grave unites ; where e'en the great find rest, 
And blended lie th' oppressor and the opprest. 

Fope. 



Noble Deed. 

I COUNT this thing to be grandly true. 
That a noble deed is a step towards God : 
Lifting the soul from the common sod 
To a purer air and a broader view. 

y. G. Holland. 

Fame. 

• 

From the great, 
Illustrious actions are a debt to Fame. 
No middle path remains for them to tread, 
Whom she hath once ennobled. 

Glover. 

Affection. 

'Tis ever so ! affection feeds 
Sometimes on flowers, how oft on weeds ! 

y.F. Wiffen. 



26 golden gems. 

Love. 

Mightier far 
Than strength of nerve or sinew, or the sway 
Of magic potent over sun and star, 
Is love, though oft to agony distrest, 
And though his favorite seat be feeble woman's 
breast. 

Wordsworth. 

Praise. 
The love of praise 
Fills life with fine amenities. Not all 
Who live have pleasant tempers, and not all 
The gift of gracious manners, or the love 
Of nobler motive higher meed than praise. 

y. G. Holland. 

Absence. 
I WILL this dreary blank of absence make, 
A noble task-time, and will therein strive 
To follow excellence, and to o'ertake 
More good than I have won since yet I live. 

Frances Ke7nble. 

Learning. 
Learning gives us a fuller conviction of the im- 
perfections of our nature ; which, one would think, 



GOLDEN GEMS. 27 

might dispose us to modesty : for the more a man 
knows, the more he discovers his ignorance. 

Ibid. 

Vengeance. 

To the just Gods, not us, pertaineth vengeance. 

Thomso7i. 

Ignorance of Futurity a Blessing. 

You know as much as is good for you. For it is 
with the mind as it is with the senses. A greater 
degree of hearing would terrify us. If your eyes 
should see things microscopically we should be 
afraid to move. Thus our knowledge is suited to 
situation and circumstances. Were we informed 
beforehand of the good things provided for us by 
Providence, from that moment we should cease to 
enjoy the blessings we possess, become indifferent 
to present duties and be filled with useless impa- 
tience. Or suppose the things foreknown were 
o-loomv and adverse, what dismay and despondency 
would be the consequence of the discovery ! and 
how many times should we suffer in imagination what 
we now only endure but once in reality ! Who 
would wish to draw back a vail that saves them from 
so many disquietudes ? If some of you had known 
the troubles through which you have since waded 



28 GOLDEN GEMS. 

you would have fainted under the prospect. But 
what we "know not now, we shall know hereafter." 

'yay. 

Wait. 

No pleader can pervail 
Who prays against the laws of Time or Fate, 
No matter how we murmur and bewail. 
The robins will not build in winter hail 
Nor lilacs bloom in February. Wait. 

Elizabeth Akers. 

Fortitude. 
But inborn worth that fortune can control, 
New strung and stiffer bent her softer soul. 
The heroine assumed the woman's place j 
Confirmed her mind, and fortified her face. 

Dryden. 

Mercy. 
Earthly power doth then show likest God's 
When mercy seasons justice. 

Shakespeare. 

Hope. 

True hope is based on energy of character. A 
strong mind always hopes, and has always cause to 
hope, because it knows the mutability of human 



GOLDEN GEMS. 29 

affairs and how slight a circumstance may change 
the whole course of events. Such a spirit, too, rests 
upon itself, it is not confined to partial views, or to 
one particular object. And if at last all should be 
lost, it has saved itself, its own integrity and worth. 
Hope awakens courage, while despondency is the 
last of all evils, it is the abandonment of good, the 
giving up of the battle of life with dead nothingness. 
He who can implant courage in the human soul is 
the best physician. 

Von Knehel ( German), Translated by Mrs. Austin. 

Love. 

Love is not an intellectual admiration, a gratified 

imagination. It is too intangible for definement; 

but the soul knoweth its presence, by its fullness of 

content in the beloved. 

Mrs. Oakes Smith. 

Money. 

Curst be the gold and silver which persuade 
Weak men to follow far fatiguing trade ! 
The lily peace outshines the silver store, 
And life is dearer than the golden ore. 
Yet money tempts us o'er the desert brown, 
To every distant mart and wealthy town. 

Collins. 



30 golden gems. 

Merit. 

Lend me thy clarion goodness ! let me try 
To sound the praise of merit ere it dies. 
Such as I oft have chanced to espy, 
Lost in the dreary shades of dull obscurity. 

Shenstone. 

Contentinient. 
Oh, may T with myself agree, 
And never covet what I see. 
Content me with an humble shade, 
My passions tam'd, my wishes laid ; 
For, while our wishes wildly roll. 
We banish quiet from the soul. 
'Tis thus the busy beat the air, 
And misers gather wealth and care. 

Dyer. 

Blush. 

The softest blush that nature spreads 

Gave color to her cheek : 

Such orient color smiles through heaven 

When vernal mornings break. 

Malld. 

Thinking. 
There is nothing good or ill, but thinking makes 
it so. Moniiagnes. 



golden gems, 31 

Love. 
Oh, if there is one thing above the rest 
Written in Wisdom — if there is a word 
That I would trace as with a pen of fire 
Upon the unsullied temper of a child — 
If there is anything that keeps the mind 
Open to angel visits, and repels 
The ministry of ill — 'Tis Love. 

N.P. Willis. 

Music. 
The devil does not stay long where music is per- 
formed. Music is the best balsam for a distressed 
heart ; it refreshes and quickens the soul. Music is 
a governess which makes people milder, meeker, 
more modest and discreet. Yes, my friends, music 
is a beautiful, glorious gift of God, and next to the- 
ology, I give it the highest place and the highest 
honor. Martin Luther. 

Forgiveness. 
My heart was heavy, for its trust had been 
Abused, its kindness answered with foul wrong j 
So, turning gloomily from my fellow-men, 
One summer Sabbath day I strolled among 
The green mounds of the village burial place ; 
Where, pondering how all human love and hate 



32 GOLDEN GEMS. 

Find one sad level ; and how, soon or late, 

Wronged and wrong-doer, each with meekened face, 

And cold hands folded over a still heart. 

Pass the green threshold of our common grave, 

Whither all footsteps tend, whence none depart. 

Awed for myself, and pitying my race. 

Our common sorrow like a mighty wave, 

Swept all my pride away, and, trembling, 

\ forgave! 

y. G. Whittier. 

Help. 

Walk 

Boldly and wisely in that light thou hast. 
There is a Hand above will help thee on. 

Bailey. 

Farewell. 

And like some low and mournful spell. 
To whisper out the word, Farewell. 

Park Benjamin. 

Malice. 

Harmless all malice, if our God be nigh; 
Fruitless all pains, if he his help deny. 
Patient I pass these gloomy hours away, 
And wait the morning of eternal day ! 

Lady Jane Dudley. 



GOLDEN GEMS. 33 



Benevolence. 
Grasp the whole worlds of reason, lip and sense, 

In one close system of benevolence. 

Pope. 

Changes. 
The heart is the medium which changes the natu- 
ral hues of objects, and makes them appear other 
than they are in reality. Nicole. 

Gratitude. 
Gratitude is a link between justice and love. It 
discharges by means of affections those debts which 
the affections only can discharge, and which are so 
much the more sacred for this reason. Gratitude 
never springs up in the soil of selfishness, for self- 
interest in its eagerness to appropriate is unable to 
understand the impulses of generosity or to measure 
the true value of the gift. And, when we do under- 
stand it, we must love much to be willing to accept, 
we refuse when we love but little. Gratitude is the 
justice of the heart. Degerando. 

Kindness. 
All worldly joys go less 
To the one joy of doing Kindnesses. 

Herbert. 
3 



34 golden gems. 

Life. 
Life is a journey. Let this thought penetrate 
thee ; that all the daily petty annoyances which meet 
thee on thy road, are as nothing when compared 
with the beautiful goal that lies before thee. 

Frederika Bremer. 
Woman. 
A WOMAN is bom to dignify retreat, 
In shade to flourish, and unseen, be great, 
Fearful of fame, unwilling to be known, 
Should seek but Heaven's applauses and her own. 

Pope. 
Strength. 
He may be strong, who bravely meets 

Death when his life is fair and sweet ; 
When only joy his full heart greets. 
And earth with hope is all replete. 

But stronger he, who nobly treads 

Life's path when all is rough and drear ; 

When grief with night his sky o'erspreads. 
And earth is robbed of light and cheer. 

Strong he may be who sternly wields 

His power to meet a selfish end, 
Who, calmly to his purpose yields 

Alike an enemy and friend. 



GOLDEN GEMS. 35 

But stronger he who for the right, 
Strikes low ambition and desire ; 

Wlio servile to the outward sight, 
Is master of the hidden fire. 

Frances A. Baker. 

Cheerfulness. 
God loveth a cheerful giver, and Christ reproved 
the Pharisees for disfiguring their faces, with a sad 
countenance. Fools ! who to persuade men that 
angels lodged in their hearts, hung out a devil for a 
sign, in their faces. Fuller. 

Charm of Conversation. 

It is the union of parts and acquirements of spirit 

and modesty, which produces the indefinable charm 

of conversation. 

Hannah More. 

Death. 
What a world were this, 
How unendurable its weight, if they 
Whom Death has sundered did not meet again ! 

Southey. 

Birth. 
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting : 
The soul that rises with us,, our life's star, 

Hath had elsewhere its setting, 

And cometh from afar ; 



36 GOLDEN GEMS. 

Not in entire forgetfulness, 

And not in utter nakedness, 

But trailing clouds of glory do we come 

From God, who is our home. Wordsworth. 

Solitude. 
A CERTAIN degree of solitude seems necessary to 
the full growth and spread of the highest mind, and 
therefore must a very extensive intercourse with men 
stifle many a holy germ, and scare away the gods who 
shun the restless tumult of noisy companies, and the 
discussion of petty interests. 

Novalis ( Geri7iaii Prose Writers). 

Heart. 
Thanks to the human heart by which we live ; 
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys and fears ; 
To me the meanest flower that blooms can give 
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears. 

Wordsworth. 
Hope. 
Things may be better yet than 3'ou suppose, 
And you should hope the best. Southey. 

Action. 
Action is, after all, the main business of our 
lives ; we are to " Work while it is yet called to- 
da)'," and thought is worth nothing, unless it leads to 
and embodies itself in practice. Aliss ycwshury. 



goldengems. 37 

Honesty. 
An honest tale speeds best, being plainly told. 

Shakespeare. 

Charity. 
The last, best fruit which comes to late perfection, 
even in the kindliest soul, is tenderness toward the 
hard, forbearance toward the unforbearing, warmth 
of heart toward the cold, and philanthropy toward 
the misanthropic. yean Paul. 

Beauty. 

It is a blessing to be fair : yet such a blessing as 
if the soul answer not to the face, may lead to a 
curse. Bishop Hall. 

Disappointment. 
Dream after dream ensues ; 
And still they dream that they shall still succeed, 
And still are disappointed. Cowper. 

Sympathy. 
There is in souls a sympathy with sounds. 
And as the mind is pitched, the ear is pleased 
With melting airs, or martial, brisk or grave ; 
Some chord in unison with what we hear 
Is touched within us, and the heart replies. 

Cowper. 



38 golden gems. 

Hope. 

When peace and merc}^, vanished from the plain, 
Sprung on the viewless winds to heaven again, 
All, all forsook the friendless guilty mind ; 
But Hope, the charmer, linger'd still behind. 

Thomas Campbell. 

Tears. 

Benign restorer of the soul ! 

Who ever fly'st to bring relief. 
When first we feel the sure control 

Of love or pity, joy or grief. 

Rogers. 

Meditation. 

Stillness accompanied with sound so soft, 
Charms more than silence. Meditation here 
May think down hours to moments. Here the heart 
May give an useful lesson to the head, 
And learning wiser grow without his books. 

Cowper. 

Beauty. 

Wisdom and virtue are the greatest beauty ! but it 
is an advantage to a diamond to be u> ell set. 

Matthew Henry. 



golden gems. 39 

Liberty. 
'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower 
Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume ; 
And we are weeds without it. Cowper. 

Genius. 
Genius ! thou gift of Heaven ! thou light divine 
Amid what dangers art thou doomed to shine ! 

Crabbe. 

Manners. 
Her air, her manners, all who saw admired ; — 
Courteous though coy, gentle though retired. 

Crabbe. 

Prayer. 
He prayeth best, who loveth best 

All things both great and small ; 
For the dear God who loveth us, 

He made and loveth all. Coleridge. 

Sleep. 
O sleep ! it is a gende thing, 
Beloved from pole to pole. Coleridge. 

Time Lost. 

To love and not be loved is time lost. 

Italian Proverb. 



40 golden gems. 

Blessings. 
It is a master-piece to draw good out of evil, and 
by the help of virtue to improve misfortune into bless- 
ings. Seneca. 

Sound. 

The mill makes the most noise, when there is no 
grist in the hopper. yean Paid. 

Welcome. 
I GREET you as host ! 
Unfold the pages of my heart 
And read therein your welcome. 

Ben yonson. 

Duty. 
Rise to your duty, 
This is the hour. Byron. 

Society. 
In all societies it is advisable to associate if possi- 
ble with the highest. In the grand theater of human 
life a box ticket takes you through the house. 

Colton. 

Conscience. 
A good conscience is to the soul what health is to 
the body. It preserves a constant ease and serenity 



GOLDEN GEMS. 4T 

within us, and more than countervails all the calami- 
ties and affections which can possibly befall us. 

Addison. 

Benefits. 

He who receives a good turn should never forget 
it, he who does one should never remember it. 

Charron. 

Bitter and Sweet. 

There is scare any lot so low, but there is some- 
thing in it to satisfy the man whom it has befallen, 
Providence having so ordered things, that in every 
man's cup how bitter soever, there are some cordial 
drops, some good circumstances, which if wisely ex- 
tracted, are sufficient for the purpose he wants them, 
that is, to make him contented, and if not happy, at 
least resigned. Sterne. 

Prudence. 

Prudence is that virtue by which we discern what 
is proper to be done under the various circumstances 
of time and place. Milton. 

Nature and Art. 
It is particularly worth observation that the more 
we m_agnify, by the assistance of glasses, the works 
of nature, the more regular and beautiful they appear, 



42 GOLDEN GEMS. 

while it is quite different in respect to those of art, 
for when they are examined through a microscope we 
are astonished to find them so rough, so coarse and 
uneven, although they have been done with all imag- 
inable care, by the best workmen. Sierfie. 

Vanity. 
Vanity is the fruit of ignorance. It thieves most 
in subterranean places, never reached by the air of 
heaven, and the light of the sun. Hoss. 

Nature. 
It is hard to personate and act a part long, for 
where truth is not at the bottom, Nature will always 
be endeavoring to return, and will peep out and be- 
tray herself one time or another. Tillotson. 

Imaginary Evils. 
Imaginary evils soon become real ones, by in- 
dulging our reflections on them ; as he who in a 
melancholy fancy sees something like a face on the 
wall, or the wainscot, can, by two or three touches 
with a lead pencil, make it look visible, and agreeing 
with what he fancied. Swift. 

Farewell. 
Hope, withering, fled — and fancy sigh'd larewell. 

Byron. 



golden gems. 43 

Life, 
Like a morning dream, life becomes more and 
more briglit the longer we live, and the reason of 
everything appears more clear. What has puzzled 
us before seems less mysterious, and the crooked 
path looks straighter as we approach the end. 

Richter. 

Affectation. 
Affectation in any part of our carriage is light- 
ing up a candle to our defects, and never fails to 
make us be taken notice of either as wanting sense 
or wanting sincerity. Locke. 

Act. 
In conduct as in courage you excel. 
Still first to act what you advise so well. 

Pope. 

Past and Future. 
It is necessary to look forward as well as back- 
ward, as some think it is always necessary to regu- 
late their conduct by things that have been done of 
old times, but that past which is so presumptuously 
brought forward as a precedent for the present, was 
itself founded on an alternative of some past that 

went before it. \ 

' Madame De Sfael. 



44 golden gems. 

Ambition. 
Ambition persevers in the desire of acquiring 

power, genius flags of itself. 

Madame De StaeL 

Writing. 
Putting thoughts in writing. It resembles a 
tradesman taking stock, without which he never 
knows either what he possesses, or in what he is 
deficient. yohn Hunter. 

Knowledge. 
If I die to-morrow, my life will be somewhat the 
sweeter for knowledge. Owen Feltham. 

Friendship. 

A man should keep his friendship in constant 
repair. Johnson. 

Great. 

The unknown is always great. Proverb. 

Learning. 
The chief art of learning is to attempt but little at 
a time. The widest excursions of the mind are made 
by short flights, frequently repeated, the most lofty 
fabrics of sicience are formed by the continued ac- 
cumulation of single propositions. Locke. 



golden gems, 45 

Difficulties. 
The wise and active conquer difficulties, 
By daring to attempt them. Sloth and folly 
Shiver and shrink at sight of toil and hazards, 
And make the impossibility '&is.y fear. 

Rowe. 

Friends. 
Those Friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, 
Grapple them to thy soul, with hooks of steel. 

Shakspeare. 

"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it 
with thy might." 

A servant with this clause 

Makes drudgery divine ; — 
Who sweeps a room, as for Thy laws, 

Makes that, and the action fine. 

Geo. Herbert. 

Care. 
Care draws on care, woe comforts woe again, 
Sorrow breeds sorrow, one grief brings forth twain. 

Dayto7i. 

Guide. 
Dim as the borrowed beams of noon and stars 
To lonely, weary, wandering travelers, 



46 GOLDEN GEMS. 

Is reason to the soul ; and as on high 
Those rolHng fires, discover but the sky, 
Not light us here, so reason's glimmering ray 
Was lent, not to assure our doubtful waj., 
But guide us upward to a better day. 

Dryden. 

Memory. 
All my past life is mine no more, 
The flying hours are gone 
Like transitory dreams given o'er, 
Whose images are kept in store 

By memory alone. Rochester. 

Happiness. 
The learn'd is happy nature to explore, 
The fool is happy that he knows no more ; 
The rich is happy in the plenty given. 
The poor contents him with the care of Heaven. 

Pope. 

Riches. 
Riches like insects when concealed they lie, 
Wait but for wings, and in their season fly. 

Fope. 

Courage. 
Courage alone can save us. Southey. 



golden gems. 47 

Charity at Christmas. 
Now heaven-born Charity ! thy blessing shed, 
Bid meagre Want uprear its sickly head, 
Bid shivering limbs be warm, let Plenty's bowl, 
In humble roofs, make glad the needy soul. 
See ! see ! the heaven-born maid her blessing shed ! 
Lo ! meagre Want uprears her sickly head ; 
Clothed are the naked, and the needy glad, 
While selfish Avarice alone is sad. Gay. 

Curiosity. 
Curiosity is a kernel of the forbidden fruit, which 
still sticketh in the throat of natural man, sometimes 
to the danger of his choking. I^ii^- 

The Mind. 
He that doubts the existence of mind, by doubt- 
ing, proves it. ■^^^^ 
Milton in his Old Age. 
I AM old and blind ! 
Men point to me as smitten by God's frown, 
Afflicted and deserted of my kind — 
Yet am I not cast down. 

I am weak, not strong — 
I murmur not that I no longer see — 
Eoor, old, and helpless, I the more belong. 

Father Supreme ! to thee. 



48 GOLDEN GEMS. 

Merciful One, 

When men are farthest, then thou art most near; 
When friends pass by, my weakness to shun, 
Thy chariot I hear. 

Thy glorious face 
Is leaning toward me — and its holy light 
Shines in upon my lonely dwelling-place, 

And there is no more night. 

On my bended knee 
I recognize thy purpose clearly shown, 
My vision thou hast dimmed that I may see 

Thyself, thyself alone. 

1 have naught to fear. 

This darkness is the shadow of thy wing — 
Beneath it I am almost sacred — here 
Can come no evil thing. 

Oh, I seem to stand 
Trembling where foot of mortal ne'er hath been, 
Wrapped in the radiance of thy sinless land, 

Which eye hath never seen. 

Visions come and go — 
Shapes of resplendent beauty round me throng ; 
From angel lips I seem to hear the flow 

Of soft and holy song. 



GOLDEN GEMS. 49 

It is nothing now, 
When heaven is ripening on my sightless eye, 
When airs from Paradise refresh my brow, 

That earth in darkness lies. 

In a purer clime. 
My being fills with rapture — waves of thought 
Roll in upon my spirit — strains sublime 

Break o'er me unsought. 

Give me now my lyre ; 

I feel the stirrings of a gift divine ; 

Within my bosom glows unearthly fire, 

Lit by no skill of mine. 

Elizabeth Lloyd. 

Sabbath. 
The Sabbath is the golden clasp which binds to- 
gether the volume of the week. Longfellow. 

Moderation. 
Moderation is the silken string running through 
the pearl chain of all virtues. Fuller. 

Never Part in Anger, 
Never part in anger — 

Mortals ! ye are frail ; 
Soon in Death's cold languor, 

Fiery cheeks may pale, 



.50 GOLDEN GEMS, 

Thy foe may fade ere thou forgive ; 
Or thou, all wrath, may cease to live. 

Never part unkindly — 

Lovers ! ye are weak' 
If ye utter blindly 

Thoughts ye need not speak, 
Go, turn your haste to Pity's side, 
While Pity still may vanquish Pride. 

Never part in anger — 

Mortal ! thou art frail ; 
Soon in Death's cold languor ; 

Fiery cheeks may pale ; 
'Twill sadden all thy term of life, 
To bury friend or foe in strife. 

Henry Ayeling. 

Mary Magdalene. 

To the hall of the feast came the sinful and fair. 
She heard in the city that Jesus was there ; 
Unheeding the splendor that blazed on the board, 
She silently knelt at the feet of the Lord. 

The hair on her forehead so sad and so meek 
Hung dark on the blushes that burned in her cheek, 
And so sad and so lowly she knelt in her shame. 
It seemed that her spirit had fled from her frame. 



GOLDEN GEMS. 51 

The frown and the murmur went round tho' them all, 
That one so unhallowed should tread in that hall ; 
And some said the Poor would be objects more meet, 
For the wealth of the perfume she poured on his feet. 

She heard but her Saviour, she spoke but in sighs, 
And she dared not look up to the heaven of his eyes ; 
And the hot tears gushed forth with each heave of 

her breast, 
While her lips to his sandals were throbbingly pressed. 

In the sky after tempest, as shineth the bow — 
In the glance of the sunbeam as melteth the snow, 
He looked on the lost one, her sins are forgiven — 
And Mary went forth in the beauty of Heaven. 

By the late Francis S. Key, author of " Star Span- 
gled Banner." 

What makes a Man. 

The longer I live the more certain I am that the 
great difference between men, the great and the in- 
significant, is energy — invincible determination — 
an honest purpose once fixed — and then the victory. 
That quality will do anything that can be done in the 
world ; and no talents, no circumstances, no oppor- 
tunity will make a two-legged creature without it. 

Goethe. 



52 golden gems. 

Self-Government. 

When we are alone, we have our thoughts to 
watch ; in the family, our tempers ; in company, our 
tongues. Hannah More. 

Rest. 

Sure the last end 
Of the good man is peace. How calm his exit ! 
Night-dews fall not more gently to the ground, 
Nor weary, worn-out winds expire so soft. 
Behold him in the evening-tide of life — 
A life well-spent, whose early care it was 
His riper years should not upbraid his green ; 
By unperceived degrees he wears away, 
Yet like the sun, seems larger at his setting ! 
(High in his faith and hopes) look how he reaches 
After the prize in view ; and like a bird 
That's hamper'd, struggles hard to get away. 
Whilst the glad gates of sight are wide expanded 
To let new glories in, the first fair fruits 
Of the fast-coming harvest. 



Repose. 
On every height there lies repose. 



Blair. 



Goethe. 



golden gems. 55 

Gold. 

Gold is the hidden light of the earth ; it crowns 
tlie mineral, as wine the vegetable order, being the 
last expression of vital energy. 

■ Margaret Fuller Ossoli, 

Affection. 

There is in life no blessing like affection : 
It soothes, it hallows, elevates, subdues, 
And bringeth down to earth its native heaven ; 
It sits beside the cradle patient hours, 
Whose sole contentment is to watch and love ; 
It bendeth o'er the death-like bed, and conceals 
Its own despair with words of faith and hope. 
Life hath naught else that may supply its place ; 
Void is ambition, cold is vanity, 
And wealth an empty glitter without love. 

Miss Lander. 

Eyes. 

Blue eyes melt ; dark eyes burn. 

Cornish Saying. 

III. 

Oft from apparent ill, our blessings rise. 

Beathe. 



54 golden gems. 

Habits. 

Habits are a necklace of pearls ; untie the knot, 
and the whole unthread. 

/Russian Saying. 

Real. 

Always endeavor to be really what you would wish 
to appear. Granville Sharp. 

Crosses. 

Crosses are the ladders that lead to heaven. 

Old Proverb. 

Trades. 
Sweet is the destiny of all trades, whither of the 
brow or of the mind. Bishop Hall. 

Good Commencement. 
Well begun, is half ended, and a good beginning 
is half the battle. Proverb. 

Moments. 
Every moment lost, gives an opportunity for mis- 
fortune. Napoleon. 

Wisdom. 
The truest wisdom, is a resolute determination. 

Maxim. 



golden gems. 55 

Talents. 

The barriers are not erected, which can say to as- 
piring talents and industry, Tlius far and no farther. 

Beethoven. 

Opportunity. 
Opportunity has hair in front, behind she is bald. 
If you seize her by the forelock, you may hold her ; 
but if suffered to escape, not Jupiter himself can 
catch her again. From the Latin. 

Wait. ■ 
To know how to wait is the great secret of success. 

De Maistre. 

Patience. 
Time and patience change the mulberry leaf to 
satin. Eastern Proverb. 

Worth. 
The fruit best worth waiting for often ripens the 
slowest. Eastern Proverb. 

True. 
This above all : to thy own self be true ; 
And it must follow, as the night the day, 
Thou canst not then be false to any man. 

Shakspeare. 



56 golden gems. 

Travel. 
Who goes slowly, goes long and goes far. 

Italiafi Proverb. 

Forgiveness. 
Let sinned against and sinning, 
Forget their strifes beginning, 
And join in friendship now. 
Be links no longer broken, 
Be sweet forgiveness spoken, 
Under the Holly-bough. 

Charles Mackay. 

Evening Prayer. 
God, that mad'st the earth and heaven, 

Darkness and light. 
Who the day for toil has given. 

And for rest the night, 
May Thine angel guards defend us, 
Slumlier sweet Thy mercy send us. 
Holy dreams and hopes attend us, 

This live long night! Heber. 

The Shadows of Ltfe. 
The shadows of the mind are like those of the 
body. In the morning of life they all lie behind us ; 
at noon we trample them under foot, and in the 



GOLDEN GEMS. 57 

evening they stretch long, broad and deepening be- 
fore us. Are not, then, the sorrows of childhood as 
dark as those of age ? Are not the morning shadows 
of life as deep and broad as those of its evening? 
Yes, but morning shadows soon fade away, while 
tliose of evening reach forward into night, and mingle 
with the coming darkness. Lojigfellow. 

Beauty. 

That is the best part of beauty which a picture 
cannot express. Bacon. 

Opinions. 

An obstinate man does not hold opinions, but they 
hold him. Pope. 

Victory. 

• 

A more glorious victory cannot be gained over an- 
other man than this, — that when the injury began on 
his part, the kindness should begin on ours. 

Archbishop Tillotson. 

Life. 

Life bears us on like the stream of a mighty 
river. Our boat at first glides down the narrow 
channel — through the playful murmurings of the little 
brook and the windings of its grassy borders. The 
trees shed their blossoms over our young heads, the 



58 GOLDEN GEMS. 

flowers seem to offer themselves to the young hands ; 
we are happy in hope, and we grasp eagerly at the 
beauty around us — but the stream hurries by, and 
still our hands are empty. Our course in youth and 
manhood is along a wilder and deeper flood, amid 
objects more striking and magnificent. We are ani- 
mated at the moving pictures, and excited at some 
short-lived disappointment. The steamer bears us 
on, and our joys and griefs are alike left behind us. 
We may be shipwrecked, but we cannot be delayed : 
whether rough or smooth, the river hastens to its 
home, till the roar of the ocean is in our ears, and the 
floods are lifted up around us, and we take our leave 
of earth and its inhabitants, until of our future voyage 
there is no witness save the Infinite and Eternal. 

Heber. 

Acts. 

Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, 
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still. 

yohn Fletcher. 

Loveliness. 

Loveliness 
Needs not the foreign aid of ornament, 
But is, when unadorned, adorned the most. 

Thomson. 



golden gems. 59 

Present. 

He that would not when he might, 
He shall not when he would. 

Thomas Percy. 

Lines from the German of Lamiter. 

Thought after thought, ye thronging rise, 
Like spring-doves from the startled wood. 
Bearing like them your sacrifice 
Of music unto God ! 

And shall these thoughts of joy and love 
Come back again no more to me — 
Returning like the patriarch's dove, 
Wing-weary from the eternal sea ? 
To bear within my longing arms 
The promise-bough of kindlier skies, 
Pluck'd from the green immortal palms 
Which shade the bowers of Paradise .'' 

Child of the sea, the mountain stream 
From its dark cavern hurries on. 
Ceaseless by night and morning's beams, 
By evening's star, and noontide's sun — 
Until at last it sinks to rest, 
O'erwearied, in the waiting sea. 
And moans upon its mother's breast — 
So turns my soul to Thee. 

y. G. Whittier. 



6o GOLDEN GEMS, 



Failure. 



We are much bound to them that succeed ; 
But, in a more pathetic sense, are bound 
To such as fail. They all our loss expound ; 
They comfort us for work that will not speed, 
And life — itself a failure. Ay, his deed. 
Sweetest in story, who the dark profound 
Of Hades flooded with entrancing sound, 
Music's own tears, was failure. Doth it read 
Therefore the worse ? Ah, no ! So much to dare. 
He fronts the regnant Darkness on its throne — 
So much to do : impetuous even there, 
He pours out love's disconsolate sweet moan — 
He wins j but few for that his deed recall ; 
Its power is in the look which costs him all. 

yean Ingelow. 

Merits. 

On their own merits modest men are dumb. 

George Colman. 

There. 

Earth's fairest hopes are but a dream, 
Its richest joys are fraught with care; 

When Life eternal pours its stream. 
Fix thou thine heart, and keep it there. 



GOLDEN GEMS. 6l 

Pride rears her mansions on the sands, 
Ambition climbs the winding stair ; 

On the sure rock which firmly stands, 
Set thou thy feet, and keep them there. 

The past an aching void hath made, 

The future doth a shadow wear ; 
On brighter scenes which never fade. 

Fix thou thine eyes, and keep them there. 

In spite of slander and mistrust, 
Or burdens great and hard to bear, 

To that alone that's right and just. 
Put thou thy hand, and keep it there. 

Life is a rugged, toilsome path ; 

Its longings from thy bosom tear ; 
Oh, anchor thou thy hope and faith 

On things eternal — only there. 

William Hamilton. 

Pass On. 

Glad, but not flushed with gladness, 

Since joys go by ; 
Sad, but not bent with sadness, 

Since sorrows die ; 
Deep in the gleaming glass, 
She sees all past things pass, 
And all sweet life that was, lie down and die. 

Swineburne. 



62 golden gems. 

Children. 
The smallest are nearest God, as the smallest 
planets are nearest the sun. yean Paul. 

Golden Year. 

But we grow old. Ah ! when shall all men's good 
Be each man's rule, and universal peace 
Lie like a shaft of light across the land. 
And like a lane of beams athwart the sea, 
Through all the circles of all the golden year ? 

Tennyson. 
Memory. 
The best way to keep good acts in memory, is to 
refresh them with new. Cato. 

Reconciliation. 
In all thy quarrels, leave open the door of recon- 
ciliation. Old Persian Saying. 

Silence. 
I think I am rather fond of silent people myself: 
I cannot bear to live with a person who feels com- 
pelled to talk because he is my companion. 

Disraeli. 
Character. 
A talent is perfected in solitude : a character in 
the stream of the world. Goethe. 



goldengems. 6^ 

The Nearest Duty. 
I SOUGHT to do some mighty act of good. 
That I might know how well my soul had btriven^ 
I waited, and the minutes, hours passed, 
Yet bore no incense of my deed to heaven. 
Sad, without hope, I watched the falling rain ; 
One drop alone could not refresh a tree, 
But drop on drop, till from its deepest root 
The giant oak drank life and liberty. 
Refreshed, like Nature, I arose to try 
And do the duty which should nearest lie ; 
And ere I knew my work was half begun, 
The noble deed I sought in vain was done. 

M. C. Smith. 

Justice. 
One hour of justice is worth seventy years of 
prayer. One act of charity is worth a century of 
eloquence. Mohammedan Saying. 

Speech. 
Priceless as the gift of utterance may be, the 
practice of silence in some respects far excels it. 
Do you think me a Quaker ? Well, be it so. Herein 
I follow George Fox most lovingly ; for I am per- 
suaded, that we most of us think too much of speech, 
which, after all, is nothing but the shell of thought. 



64 G O L D E N G E M S . 

Quiet contemplation, still worship, unuttered rap- 
ture, — these are mine when my best jewels are 
before me. Brethren, rob not your heart of the 
deep-sea joys ; miss not the far-down life, by forever 
battling among the broken shells and foaming surges 
of the shore. Spurgeon. 

Bereavement. 
Nay, weep not, dearest, though the child be dead ; 
He lives again in heaven's unclouded life, 
With other angels that have early fled 
From these dark scenes of sorrow, sin and strife ; 
Nay, weep not, dearest, though thy yearning love, 
Would fondly keep for earth its fairest flowers. 
And e'en deny to brighter realms above, 
The few that deck this dreary world of ours ; 
Though much it seems a wonder and a woe, 
That one so loved should be so early lost, 
And hallowed tears may unforbidden flow, 
To mourn the "blossom that we cherished most ; 
Yet all is well ; God's good design I see, 
That where our treasure is, our hearts may be. 

john G. Saxe. 

The Law of Manhood. 
Bear this life, millions, bravely bear — 

Bear this life, for the better one. 
See ye the stars ? a life is there, 

When the reward is won. Schiller. 



golden gems. 65 

Old Age. 

One's age should be tranquil, as one's childhood 
should be playful : hard work, at either extremity of 
human existence, seems to me out of place ; the 
morning and the evening should be alike, cool and 
peaceful ; at mid-day the sun may burn, and men 
may labor under it. Dr. Arnold. 

Heaven. 

I THINK Heaven will not shut forevermore, 
Without a knocker left upon the door. 
Lest some belated wanderer should come, 
Heart-broken, asking just to die at home ; 
So that the Father will at last forgive, 
And looking on his face, that soul shall live, 
I think there will be watchmen through the night, 
Lest any, afar off, turn them to the light ; 
That He who loves us into life must be, 
A father infinitely Fatherly, 

And, groping for Him, these shall find their way. 
From outer darkness, through twilight, into day. 

Gerald Massey. 

Harvest. 

We must not hope to be mowers. 
And to gather the ripe gold ears, 
5 



66 GOLDEN GEMS. 

Until we have first been sowers, 
And watered the furrows with tears. 

It is not just as we take it — 
This mystical world of ours ; 

Life's field will yield, as we make it, 
A har\'est of thorns or flowers. 

Alice Cary. 

Heaven. 

Those who go to Heaven will be very much sur- 
prised at the people they find there, and much more 
surprised at those they do not find there. 

Samuel Rogers. 

New England. 

Home of the good, the brave, the wise, 

Bold youth and beauty bright. 
The sun, as on his course he hies, 

Beholds no lovelier sight. 
Italia's vales with perfume glow 

From every flowery tree. 
But ne'er those lovely valleys know 

The breath of Liberty. 

Bright beams the sun on Syria's plains, 

Where ancient prophets trod, 
And held, in Nature's forest fanes, 

Hidi converse with their God. 



GOLDEN GEMS. 67 

But holier are the hills that bind 

Thy stormy ocean's shore, 
For there the sacred human mind 

Knows its own strength once more. 

There, in the cottage and the hall, 

As bursts the morning ray, 
The hymn of praise ascends from all 

To Him who gives the day. 
There, as the evening sun declines, 

They join in harmless glee ; 
On all the beam of pleasure shines, 

For all alike are free. .S. G. Bulfi7ich. 

Kindness. 
Deal gently, deal kindly, deal lovingly, and there 
is not a wolf in human shape but will be melted by 
kindness ; and there is not a tiger in woman's form 
but will break down and sue for pardon, if God 
should bless the love that is brought to bear upon 
her by her friends. * Spurgeon. 

Justice. 
Justice is the key-note of the world, and all else 
is ever out of tune. Theodore Parker. 

New England. 
Here — where the East unbars the Gates of Day, 
Love, Liberty and Law hold genial sway ; 



68 GOLDEN GEMS. 

While Patriots see, with honest joy and pride, 

The school-house and the church stand side by side; 

Here — Poetry has swept her golden lyre ] 

Here — Eloquence has breathed, — in words of fire; 

Here — heaven-born Worth a favored home has 

found ; 
And Valorous Deeds made consecrated ground ! 

Here, — Adams, — Quincy, — Otis, — Hancock stood, 
Defying danger, for their country's good ; 
Bravely they spoke, in fortune's darkest hour. 
And kingdoms shook before their words of power! 

Where through the Past was there sublimer fame, 
Than that connected with the Pilgrims' name ? 
What could a people have, or wish for, more, 
Than the Immortal Rock on Plymouth shore ? 

Swift, — may each hallowed influence expand 

Ifi ever-widening Circles, o'er the land ; 

Till that fine Seed of Life, the "Ma}fio7asr " brought. 

Sows the vast Continent with Noble Thought. 

R. C Waterston. 

Joy. 
A THING of beauty is a joy forever. It's loveli- 
ness increases ; it will never pass into nothingness. 

John Keats. 



golden gems. 69 

Gay Scenes. 
For wheresoe'er I turn my ravished eyes, 
Gay gilded scenes and shining prospects rise, 
. Poetic fields encompass me around. 
And still I seem to tread on classic ground. 

Addison. 

If I COULD SAY, " How Happy." 
Silence is the perfected herald of joy ; I were but 
little happy, if I could say how much. 

Shakspeare. 

Blessings. 
How blessings brighten as they take their flight ! 

Young. 

Faith. 
One in whom persuasion and belief 
Had ripened into faith, and faith became 
A passionate intuition. 

Wordsworth. 

Happiness. 
O happiness ! our being's end and aim ! 
Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate'er thy name; 
That something still which prompts th' eternal sigh 
For which we bear to live, or dare to die. 

Pope. ■ 



•jo golden gems. 

Envy. 

Base envy withers at another's joy, 
And hates that excellence it cannot reach. 

James Thomson. 

Fancy. 

We figure to ourselves 
The thing we like, and then we build it up 
As chance will have it, on the rock or sand ; 
For thought is tired of wandering o'er the world, 
And home-bound fancy runs her bark ashore. 

Henry Taylor. 

Wise. 
Be wise with speed, 
A fool at forty, is a fool indeed. 

Young. 

Trifles. 
Think nought a trifle, though it small appear; 
Small sands the mountain, moments make the year 
And trifles life. Young. 

Vexations. 

Vexations, duly borne, 

Are but as trials, which heaven's love to man 

Sends for his good. 

Shakspeare. 



golden gems. 71 

Humility. 

If thou desire the love of God and man, be hum- 
ble ; for the proud heart, as it loves none but itselfe, 
so it is beloved of none, but by itselfe ; the voice of 
humility is God's musick, and the silence of humility 
is God's rhetorick. Humility enforces, where neither 
virtue nor strength can prevaile, nor reason. 

Enchiridion. 

Books. 

They are the heritage that glorious minds 

Bequeath unto the world ! — a glittering store 
Of gems, more precious far than those he finds 

Who searches miser's hidden treasures o'er. 
They are the light, the guiding star of youth. 

Leading his spirit to the realms of thought, 
Pointing the way to Virtue, Knowledge, Truth, 

And teaching lessons, with deep wisdom fraught. 
They cast strange beauty round our earthly dreams, 

And mystic brightness o'er our daily lot ; 
They lead the soul afar to fairy scenes, 

Where the world's under visions enter not; 
They're deathless and immortal — ages pass away, 

Yet still they speak, instruct, inspire, amidst decay ! 

Emeiine S. Smith. 



7* golden gems. 

Psalm. 

All as God wills, who wisely heeds 

To give, or to withhold, 
And knoweth more of all my needs, 

Than all my prayers have told. 

. Enough that blessings undeserved 
Have marked my erring track ; — 

There wheresoe'er my feet have swerved, 
His chastening turned me back; — 

That all the jarring notes of life 

Seem blending in a psalm, 
And all the angles of its strife 

Slow rounding into calm. Whiftier. 

Quarrels. 

Beware 
Of entrance to a quarrel : but being in, 
Bear't, that th' opposed may beware of thee. 
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice ; 
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. 

Shakspeare. 

The Past. 

Why are departed days so strangely bright ? 
Why are they clad in hues so passing fair ? 



GOLDEN GEMS. 73 

The Present smiles — the Future beams in light, 
Yet not the glories of the Past they wear. 
The melody of birds, the breath of flowers, 
The life, and light, and loveliness of spring, 
Can never more, as in life's earlier hours, 
The full, unmeasured tide of rapture bring. 
O'er vanish'd years the rays of memory cast 
A light, like moonbeams on a tranquil stream, 
Softening the harsher features of the Past, 
Bidding its lovelier ones more brightly gleam. 
Till sight or sound that tells of moments gone. 
Stirs the heart's depths as doth a trumpet-tone. 
Mrs. Emeline S. Smith, 

Good Night. 
To all, to each, a fair good night, 
And, pleasing dreams, and slumbers light. 

Scott 

The Old Man's Darling. 
So I'm "crazy" in loving a man of three score: 
Why, I never had come to my senses before ; 
But I'm doubtful of yours, if you're thinking to prove 
My insanity, just by the fact of my love. 

You would like to know what are his wonderful wiles: 

Only delicate praises, and flattering smiles ; 

'Tis no spell of enchantment, no magical art, 

But, the way he says " darling," that goes to my heart. 



74 GOLDEN GEMS. 

Yes, he's "sixty." I cannot dispute with j'ou there, 
But you'd make him a hundred, I think, if you dare ; 
And I'm glad all his folly of first love is past. 
Since I'm sure, of the two, it is best to be last. 

His hair is as white as the " snow-drift," you say ; 
Then I never shall see it change slowly to gray ; 
But I almost could wish, for his dear sake alone, 
That my tresses were nearer the hue of his own. 

" He can't see ! " then I'll help him to see and to hear ; 
If it's needful, you know, I can sit very near ; 
And he's young enough yet to interpret the tone 
Of a heart that is beating up close to his own. 

I "must aid him ; " ah ! that is my pleasure and pride ; 
I should love him for this if nothing beside ; 
And though I've more reasons than I can recall, 
Yet the one that he needs me is strongest of all. 

So, if I'm insane, you will own, I am sure. 
That the case is so hopeless it's past any cure ; 
And, besides it is acting no very wise part, 
To be treating the head for disease of the heart. 

And if anything could make a woman believe 
That no dream can delude, and no fancy deceive, 
That she never knew lover's enchantment before, 
It's being the darling of one of three score. 

Phcbe Cary. 



golden gems. 75 

Youth. 
Youth is the time for laope ; 

Then the sweet smile is ours, 
And she decks life's thorny path 

With brightly blooming flowers ; 
Then the fair Syren sings of endless bliss, 
And points afar to happier worlds than this. 

Youth is the time for dreams, 

The blissful and the bright, 
When radiant thoughts around us beam, 

And sport in fancy's light ; 
When shapes of heavenly mold arise. 
And whisper legends of the skies. 

Youth is the time for love ; 

'Tf^ there its magic spell 
Is cast around the captive heart 

That loves the fetters well 3 
Then rapturous feelings in the soul have birth, 
And give the hue of Paradise to Earth. 

Youth is the time for joy ; 

Then her fair smiling ray 
Lends its own brilliance to the world, 

And makes it bright and gay ; 
She paints all things with pencil dipp'd in light. 
And life appears a garden of delight. 

Mrs. Emeline S. Smith. 



76 GOLDEN GEMS. 

To THE Sea. 
Thou glorious sea ! more pleasing far 

When all thy waters are at rest, 
And noonday sun, or midnight star 

Is shining on thy waveless breast. 

More pleasing far, than when the wings 
Of stormy winds are o'er thee spread, 

And every billowy mountain flings 
Aloft to heaven its foaming head. 

Yet is the very tempest dear, 

Whose mighty voice but tells of thee, 

For wild or calm, or far or near, 
I love thee still, thou glorious sea ! 

Mrs. Hemans. 

Religion. 
The best profession of religion is a good life. 

E. W. 

Studies. 
The higher the studies the fewer the students. 
" The foremost horseman rides alone." E. W. 

Poetry. 
Poetry, like truth, is a common flower. God has 
sown it over the earth like daisies, sprinkled with 



GOLDEN GEMS. 77 

tears, or glowing in the sun, even as he places the 
crocus and the March frosts together, and beautifully 
mingles life and death. Ehenezer Elliott. 

Friendship. 

There is a settled friendship, nay, a near relation 
and similitude, between God and good men. 

Seneca. 

Nothing Lost. 

In the moral world nothing is lost, as in the ma- 
terial world nothing is annihilated. All our thoughts 
and all our sentiments here below, are but the begin- 
ning of sentiments and thoughts that will be finished 
elsewhere. youbert. 

Impulses. 

Good impulses are naught, unless they become 
good actions. Joubert. 

Great and Fortunate. 

Strive, O wise man, to make the wicked good ; 
for the good are of themselves good and fortunate. 

Firidure. 

Creator. 

There is but one object greater than the soul: 
and that one is its Creator. St. Augustine. 



78 golden gems. 

Battle Hymn. 
Ffar not, O little flock, the foe 
Who madly seeks your overthrow ! 

Dread not his rage and power. 
What though your courage sometimes faints, 
His seeming triumph o'er God's saints 

Lasts but a little hour. 

Be of good cheer : your cause belongs 
To Him who can avenge your wrongs ; 

Leave it to Him, our Lord. 
Though hidden yet from all our eyes, 
He sees the Gideon who shall rise 

To save us and His word. 

As true as God's own word is true, 
Nor earth or hell, with all their crew, 

Against us shall prevail ; 
A jest and by-word are they grown, 
God is with us, we are His own, 

Our victory cannot fail. 

Amen ! Lord Jesus, grant our prayer! 

Great Captain, now thine arm make bare ! 

Fight for us once again ! 
So shall thy saints and martyrs raise 
A mighty chorus to Thy praise, 

World without end — Amen. 

Gustavus Adolphus. 

Sung by G Adolphus, for the last time, just before the fatal battle of 
Lutzen, in 1631. 



golden gems. 79 

Lord, to Whom shall we Go? 

Saviour ! needs the world no longer 

To rejoice beneath thy light? 
Have we lovers sweeter, stronger ? 

Beams for us a sun more bright? 
Are we weary 

Of thy mercy and thy might ? 

Mighty Lord, so high above us, 

Loving brother, all our own. 
Who will help us, who will love us. 

Like to Thee who all hast known — 
Who hast proved 

Darksome grave and heavenly throne ? 

Who so gentle to the sinners 
• As the soul that never fell ? 
Who so strong to make us winners 
Of the height he won so well ? 

Always victor ! 
Make thine own invincible ! 

From thecross hath gone the glory ? 

Seems it less divinely borne ? 
Sweetest day of man's sad stor}^, 

Shineth not that rising morn ? 
Heavenly dweller ! 

Leave, Oh, leave not earth forlorn ! 



So GOLDEN GEMS. 

Yesterday doth tribute render 

To the brightness of th}^ sway, 
Oh, the holy, happy splendor 

That thou pour'st on us to-day ! 
Must it vanish ? 

Hast thou given them all away ? 

Endless lover ! never, never 

Wilt thou cease to save and shine j 
Yesterday, to-day, forever, 
All the ages. Lord, are thine ! 

Come and bless them : 
Come and make them more divine ! 

T. H. Gill. 

Value. 
If there be anything which you highly value or ten- 
derly love, estimate at the same time its true nature. 
Is it some possession ? remember that it may be de- 
stroyed. Is it wife or child? remember that they may 
die. Epiddus. 

Practice. 
Whoever acquires the knowledge, and does not 
practice it, resembles him who plows his land, and 
leaves it unsown. Sadi. 

Valiant. 
So valiant, as he never durst doe any bodie injurie, 



GOLDEN GEMS. 51 

his word even led by his thought and followed by his 
deede. Sidney. 

Fountain of Light. 

How like rain is the human heart ; having no 
beauty in itself, but, beneath the smile of God, show- 
ing forth with all the rainbow's glory ; or how like a 
star, which, though but dust, can yet be cherished into 
a semblance of the Fountain of Light. 

yean Paul Richter. 

Immortality. 

The belief in immortality depends on virtue ; those 
only who by virtuous exertion are striving to over- 
come the world can be true believers in immortality. 

C. Fallen. 

• Religion. 

Ey religion I understand the devotedness of the 
soul to its highest happiness in perceiving, loving, 
and obeying God. C. Fallen. 

Sin. 
Manlike it is to fall into sin ; 
Fiendlike it is to dwell therein ; 
Christlike it is for sin to grieve ; 
Godlike it is all sin to leave. 

Longfellow. 



82 golden gems. 

Acquaint thyself with Him, and be at peace. 
—yob 

Peace, troubled heart ! let not thy plaint 
Be heard, thyself with Him acquaint ; 
So His all-sheltering wing shall be 
Thy swift security. 

Spirit, be calm ! for He is kind, 
Though thou for very pain art blind ; 
His Sabbath only is thy rest ; 
Then lean upon His breast. 

Be strong, my soul, in all His ways ; 
Thy constant benefactor praise ; 
And be thy thought and worship given 
To Him whose will is heaven. 

Be thou, my life, brave to the end. 
For God is thine unchanging friend. 
Thee daily with Himself He feeds: 
Peace follows where He leads. 

S. D. Robbins. 

Firmness. 

Be cheerful, and seek not external help, nor the 
tranquillity which others give. A man must stand 
erect, not be kept erect by others. Be like the prom- 
ontory against which the waves continually break, 



GOLDEN GEMS. 83 

but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water 
around it. Marcus Aurelius. 

Endurance. 
Let men langh when you sacrifice desire to duty, 
if they will. You have time and eternity to rejoice 
in. Parker. 

Judgment. 
Judge every word and deed which is according to 
nature to be fit for thee, and be not diverted by the 
blame which follov/s; but if a thing is good to be 
done or said, do not consider it unworthy of thee. 

Marcus Aureliiis. 

We've had our Share of Bliss. 

We've had our share of bliss, beloved, 

We've had our share of bliss ; 
And 'mid the varying scenes of life. 

Let us remember this. 
If sorrows come, from vanished joy 

We'll borrow such a light 
As the departed sun bestows 

Upon the queen of night ; 
And, thus, by Memory's moonbeams cheer'd, 

Hope's sun we shall not miss, 
But tread life's path as gay as when 

We've had our share of bliss. 



84 GOLDENGEMS. 

'Tis true our sky hath had its clouds, 

Our spring its stormy hours, 
When we have mourned, as all must mourn, 

O'er blighted buds and flowers ; 
And true, our bark hath sometimes near'd 

Despair's most desert shore. 
When gloomy looked the waves around, 

And dark the land before ! 
But Love was ever at the helm — 

He could not go amiss 
So long as two fond spirits sang, 

"We've had our share of bliss." 

These holy watchwords of the Past, 

Shall be the Future's stay, 
For by their magic aid we'll keep 

A host of ills at bay. 
Our happy hearts, like tireless bees, 

Have revell'd mid the flowers, 
And hiv'd a store of summer sweets 

To cheer life's wintry hours. 
While Memory lives, and Love remains, 

We'll ask no more than this ; 
But ever sing, in grateful strains, 

" We've had our share of bliss." 

Mrs. Emeline S. Smith. 



golden gems. 85 

Spring Concert 
There's a concert, a concert of gladness and glee, 
The programme is rich, and the tickets are free, 
In a grand vaulted hall, where there's room and to 

spare. 
With no gas-light to eat up the oxygen there. 
The musicians excel in their wonderful art. 
They have compass of voice, and the gamut by heart ; 
They have traveled abroad in the winter recess, 
And sung to vast crowds with unbounded success ; 
And now 'tis a favor and privilege rare, 
Their arrival to hail and their melodies share. 

These exquisite minstrels a fashion have set, 
Which they hope you'll comply with and may not re- 
gret. 
They don't keep late hours, for they've always been 

. told 
'T would injure their voice and make them look old. 
They invite you to come, if you have a fine ear, 
To the garden or grove, their rehearsals to hear; 
Their chorus is full ere the sunbeam is born, 
Their music is sweetest at breaking of morn. 
It was learned at Heaven's gate, with its rapturous 

lays, 
And may teach you, perhaps, its own spirit of praise. 

Mrs. L. H. Sigourney. 



86 GOLDEN GEMS. 

A Vagary. 
I WOULD I had a lover twice my years ! 
It were the sweetest pastime I could make, 
To turn my foolish time, for his wise sake, 
To pretty uses, all unvexed with fears 

About the youthful roses I resigned, 
Daily to go about my household care, 
Hanging full often on his silver hair 
My golden tresses, till his eyes were blind 

To all my faults. And tell me, can there be 
In this majestic world a better sight. 
Than is the May-time when that she doth write 
All her green love along the hoary sea ! 

From th' low sun a redder light is born 
Than when at first the eastern hills are kissed. 
And shining wings out-flashing from the mist, 
Tell us about the morning, ere the morn. 

And yet the saddest doom in all the range 
Of womanhood, is to be loved, and love ; 
To stand still is to die, and ah, to move 
Though even but a hair's breadth, is to change ! 

To absorb, or be absorbed, for, well — a — day, 
Searching the good earth round from north to south, 
'Tis the glad fountain laying its white mouth 
Against the dust that sucks its life away. 

A/ice Cary. 



golden gems. 87 

The Parting. 

The signal from the distant strand 
Streams o'er tlie water blue — 
It bids me press the parting hand, 
And breathe my last adieu ; 
But oft on Fancy's glowing wing 
My heart will love to stray, 
And still to thee with rapture spring, 
Though I am far away. 

George D. Prentice. 

The Street Beggar. 

Shake not your glossy curls with a ''no," 
As you sit in the warm and rosy glow 

Twixt your hearth and pictured wall, 
Ah, my lady, you do not know 
How folks feel with their feet in the snow. 

And no bright fire at all. 

A sixpence ! that you will never miss. 
See what a baby you have to kiss ! 

Honor and wealth to prove ; 
Ah, my lady, you cannot guess 
How folks feel in a night like this, 

With no little child to love. 



OS GOLDEN GEMS. 

From house to house, I liave gone all day — 
" Nothing for beggars " is all they say, 

Though a banquet waiting stands ; 
Ah, you never have known the way 
Poor folks feel when their heads are gray, 

And palsy shaking their hands. 

For sake of charity say not " no," 

I am almost famished — I cannot go — 

I must steal or starve — and why? 
Because, my lady, you do not know 
How folks feel with their feet in the snow, 
Turned out from your fires, to die. 

Alice Cary. 
Remorse. 
I ALWAYS feel that my affection for living friends is 
enlivened by the reflection that they too may pass 
away. If we were only half as lenient to the living 
as we are to the dead, how much happiness might we 
render them, and from how much vain and bitter 
remorse might we be spared, when the grave, " the 
all atoning grave " has closed over them. 

Countess of Blessington. 

The Golden Now, 
The earth is loud with discontentments murmured 

By foolish mouths — the selfish and the vain — 
And yet a world of agony unuttered. 

Lies behind lips that never tell their pain. 



GOLDEN GEMS. 89 

The voiceless dark is loaded with repentance, 
In solemn courts of midnight, where, o'ercast 

With sorrow, conscience looks its silent sentence 
Against the culprit actions of the past. 

And coundess eyes, aglaze with hot reflections. 
Stare down the highway which their feet have 
known, 

Where stands afar the ghosdy recollections. 
Like frowning statues, not to be o'erthrown. 

While fancy sees them rise in retributions, 

A spectre files along the future way. 
To blight the hope and chill the resolutions 

Which night should marshal for the coming day. 

Oh, ye who cower a-tremble at the errors 
Rebuking memory conjures where you wait, 

Rise, and against the past, with all its terrors, 
With hand indignant swing the iron gate. 

Rise in the golden now, and ope its portal — 
That doorway which to-morrow never opes — 
' Worthy your manhood and your soul immortal, 
Go forward to the harvest of your hopes. 

Nor let the future mantle of December 
Become a coward's sackcloth, ashen gray. 

To doom your aged anguish to remember 
The precious chances you refuse to-day. 



90 GOLDEN GEMS. 

What's done is done — let errors past recalling 

In guilty waters of oblivion drown ; 
The fret of retrospection, hot and galling, 

Wilts to the root the flower of courage down, 

Until despair half makes the soul contented 

To sit reluctant at the yet untried ; 
Perpetual brooding over what's repented, 

Is but the drug of constant suicide. 

Such a sorrow is a winter owl foreboding 

For future wilderness nights of care, 
While cheerful thoughts are happy song-birds loading 

With May-time music all the summer air. 

The vain regrets we nurture in our bosoms 

Are deadly night shades, which we feed with tears; 

But all the heart becomes a bed of blossoms 
When hope is jocund and contentment cheers. 

Shake from your feet the dust with wholesome scorn- 
ing 

Against the ugly, ne'er-to-be-undone ! 
From out the cloudy darkness, like the morning, 

With glowing brow go forth into the sun. 

And to the duty nearest, most defiant. 

With steadfast courage lay your shouldered strength, 
And conquering more than cities, like a giant, 

Arise the master of yourself at length. 



GOLDEN GEMS. 9I 

Prophetic hopes shall lead you to new pleasures 
Along the yielding pathway of the plough. 

To yellow harvests and to orchard treasures. 
The fruit of action in the golden now. 

And when the tranquil evening crowns your labor 
With sheaves and fruits and welcome household 
songs, ■ 
At peace with Heaven, your conscience and your 
neighbor. 
Resign your prayerful heart where it belongs. 

T. Buchanan Read. 

Across the River. 

When for me the silent oar 

Parts the Silent River, 
And I stand upon the shore 

Of the strange Forever, 
Shall I miss the loved and known ? 
Shall I vainly seek mine own? 

'Mid the crowd that come to meet 

Spirits sin-forgiven, — 
Listening to their echoing feet 

Down the streets of heaven, — 
Shall I know a footstep near. 
That I listen, wait for, here ? 



92 GOLDEN GEMS. 

Then will one approach the brink 

With a hand extended, 
One whose thoughts I loved to .think 

Ere the vail was rended, 
Saying "Welcome! we have died, 
And again are side by side." 

Saying " I will go with thee, 
That thou be not lonely. 

To yon hills of mystery ; 
I have waited only 

Until now, to climb with thee, 

Yonder hills of mystery." 

Can the bonds that makes us here 

Know ourselves immortal, 
Drop away, like foliage sear, 

At life's inner portal ? 
What is holiest below- 
Must forever live and grow. 

I shall love the angels well, 
After I have found them 

In the mansions where they dwell, 
With the glory round them. 

But at first without surprise, 

Let me look in human eyes. 



GOLDEN GEMS. 93 

Step by step our feet must go 

Up the holy mountain ; 
Drop by drop, within us flow 

Life's unfailing fountain. 
Angels sing with crowns that burn ; 
We shall have a song to learn. 

He who on our saintly path 

Bids us help each other — 
Who his Well-beloved hath 

Made our Elder Brother — 
Will but clasp the chain of love 
Closer when we meet above. 

Therefore dread I not to go 

O'er the Silent River, 
Death, thy hastening oar I know ; 

Bear me, thou Life-giver, 
Through the waters, to the shore, 
Where mine own have gone before ! 

Zucy Larcom. 

Books. 

The pleasures of the intellect not creative, but 
only recipient, have never been fully appreciated. 
What a joy is there in a good book, writ by some 
great master of thought, who breaks into beauty, as 
in summer the meadow into grass and dandelions 
and violets, with geraniums, and manifold sweetness. 



94 GOLDEN GEMS. 

As an amusement, that of reading is worth all the 
rest. What pleasure in science, in literature, in poe- 
try, for any man who will but open his eye and his 
heart to take it in ! Parker. 

The Eternal Goodness. 

friends ! with whom my feet have trod 
The quiet aisles of prayer. 

Glad witness to your zeal for God 
And love of man I bear. 

1 trace your lines of argument; 
Your logic linked and strong, 

I weigh as one who dreads dissent, 
And fears a doubt as wrong. 

But still my human hands are weak 

To hold your iron creeds ; 
Against the words ye bid me speak, 

My heart within me pleads. 

Who fathoms the Eternal Thought > 

Who talks of scheme and plan.? 
The Lord is God ! He needeth not 

The poor device of man. 

I walk with bare, hushed feet, the ground 

Ye tread with boldness shod ; 
I dare not fix with mete and bound 

The love and power of God. 



G O L D E N G E M S . 95 

Ye praise His justice ! even such 

His pitying love I deem ; 
Ye seek a king ! I fain would touch 

The robe that hath no seam. 

Ye see the curse which over-broods 

A world of pain and loss ; 
I hear our Lord's beatitudes 

And prayer upon the cross. 

More than your school-men teach, within 

Myself, alas ! I know ; 
Too dark ye cannot paint the sin. 

Too small the merit show. 

I bow my forehead to the dust, 
■ I vail mine eyes for shame, 
And urge, in trembling self-distrust, 
A prayer without a claim. 

I see the wrong that round me lies, 

I feel the guilt within ; 
I hear, with groans and travail cries. 

The world confess its sin. 

Yet, in the maddening maze of things. 

And tossed by storm and flood. 
To one fixed stake my spirit clings — 

I know that God is good ! 



96 GOLDEN GEMS. 

Not mine to look where cherubim 
And seraphs may not see, 

But nothing can be good in Him 
Which evil is in me. 

The wrong that pains my soul below, 

I dare not throne above ; 
I know not of His hate, — I know 

His goodness and His love. 

I dimly guess, from blessings known, 

Of greater out of sight, 
And, with the chastened Psalmist, own 

His judgments too are right. 

I long for household voices gone, 
For vanished smiles J long. 

But God hath led my dear ones on, 
And he can do no wrong. 

I know not what the future hath 

Of marvel or surprise. 
Assured alone that life and death 

His mercy underlies. 

And if my heart and flesh are weak 

To bear an untried pain. 
The bruised reed. He will not break, 

But strengthen and sustain. 



G O L D E N G E M S . 97 

No offering of my own I have, 

Nor works my faith to prove ; 
I can but give the gifts he gave, 

And plead His love for love. 

And so beside the Silent Sea 

I wait the muffled oar ; 
No harm from Him can come to me 

On ocean or on shore. 

I know not where His islands lift 

Their fronded palms in air ; 
I only know I cannot drift 

Beyond His love and care. 

O brothers ! if my faith is vain. 

If hopes like these betray. 
Pray for me, that my feet may gain 

The sure and safer way. 

And Thou, O Lord ! by whom are seen 

Thy creatures as they be, 
Forgive me if too close I lean 

My human heart on Thee ! 

John G. Whittier. 



qS GOLDEN GEMS. 

Perseverance. 
Never give up ! or the burden may sink you, 
Providence wisely has mingled the cup ; 
And in all trials and troubles bethink you, 
The watchword of life should be, Never give up ! 

M. F. Tupper. 

Education. 
I value the education of the intellect not for its 
present joy alone, but for the greater growth it gives, 
the enlargement of the cup to take in more and 
higher joys. Parker. 

Hymn. 
With silence only as their benediction, 

God's angels come, 
Where, in the shadow of a great affliction, 

The soul sits dumb ! 

Yet, would I say what thy own heart approveth : 

Our Father's will. 
Calling to Him the dear ones whom He loveth, 

Is mercy still. 

Not upon thee or thine the solemn angel 

Hath evil wrought ; 
Her funeral anthem is a glad evangel — 

The good die not ! 



GOLDEN GEMS. 99 

God calls our loved ones, but we lose not wholly 

What He hath given ; 
They live on earth in thought and deed as truly 

As in His heaven. 

John G. Whittier. 

Virtue. 
All personal beauty seems little when we see the 
virtues of a man, — only the shadow of that divine 
substance. The perfect symmetry which men ascribe 
to Jesus, the beauty of his form and face, — all that 
fades into nothing when we know that out of his own 
heart he could pronounce those beautiful beatitudes, 
and with his dying lips say, "Father, forgive them." 

Parker. 

The Noble Nature. 
It is not growing like a tree 
In bulk, doth make man better be; 
Or standing long an oak, three hundred years. 
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere ; 

A lily of a day 

Is fairer far in May, 
Although it fall and die that night — 
It was the plant and flower of Light. 
In small proportions we just beauties see ; 
And in short measures life may perfect be. 

B. jfohnson. 



lOO GOLDEN GEMS. 

Personal Idealization. 
Agreeable persons you always love best when 
present Disagreeable persons whom you love, you 
always love best in absence ; because imagination, 
stimulated by affection, supplies virtues whose ugly 
omission is pressed upon you when such persons are 
by. Parker. 

Life. 
Life ! I know not what thou art, 
But know that thou and I must part ; 
And when, or how, or where we met, 
I own to me's a secret yet. 

Life 1 we've been long together. 

Through pleasant and through cloudy weather; 

'Tis hard to part when friends are dear^ — 

Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear ; 

— Then steal away, give little warning. 

Choose thine own time ; 

Say not Good Night, — but in some brighter clime 

Bid me Good Morning. 

A. L. Barbauld. 

Cross and Crown. 
O NIGHTS of woe ! O days of gloom ! 

Is there of ye to be no end ? 
Imprisoned in a living tomb, 

Shall earth to me no joyance lend ? 



GOLDEN GEMS. lOI 

O weary heart ! O wandering feet ! 

Bides there for ye~no resting place? 
No harbor blest, no calm retreat, 

Where love may yet your scars efface ? 

O withered joy ! O faded hope ! 

For me will ye ne'er bloom again ? 
Fulfilled is now youth's horoscope ? 

And what life z>, must life remain ? 

Then let me die, nor longer bear, 

Through nights of woe, and days of gloom, 
This pressing weight of chill despair. 

But find oblivion in tlie tomb. 

Or must I live ? then let my heart 

Grow hard and cold as flint and steel; 

Let will and thought from feeling part, 
My soul each fount of softness seal. 

For earth, and life, and human love: 
I've proved ye all, and found ye vain ! 

In aught below, in aught above, 

What joys for me henceforth remain? 

Ah, wicked mind ! ah, faithless heart ! 

What weak, what rebel thoughts are these 1 
Live thou for God and man, nor part 

Thy hold on Him who "is our peace." 



I02 GOLDEN GEMS. 

E'en Him, that pure and sinless One, 
It " pleased the Lord to put to grief," 

Though " violence " He ne'er had " done," 
Yet " bruised " was He for our relief. 

" Howe'er rejected and despised," 

With " sorrow and with grief acquaint," 

By " thine own " received not, or misprized, 
Like Him refrain from all complaint. 

Wear thou the expiatory crown, 

The " chastisement of others' peace ; " 

With love supernal looking down, 
Thy heart will find at length release. 

" Prosper his pleasure " still with thee. 
Live thou to Him, for thee who died; 

The travail of thy soul thou'lt see, 
And seeing " shall be satisfied." 



My Creed. 

I HOLD that Christian grace abounds 
Where charity is seen ; that when 

We climb to heaven, 'tis on the rounds 
Of love to men. 



GOLDEN GEMS. I03 

I hold all else, named piety, 

A selfish scheme, a vain pretense ; 

Where center is not, can there be 
Circumference ? 

This I moreover hold, and dare 

Affirm where'er my rhyme may go ; 

Whatever things be sweet or fair. 
Love makes them so. 

Whether it be the lullabies 

That charm to rest the nursling bird, 
Or that sweet confidence of sighs 

And blushes, made without a word. 

Whether the dazzling and the flush 
Of softly sumptuous garden bowers, 

Or by some cabin door, a bush 
Of ragged flowers. 

'Tis not the wide phylactery, 

Nor stubborn fast, nor stated prayers. 
That makes us saints : we judge the tree 

By what it bears. 

And when a man can live apart 

From works, on theologic trust, 

I know the blood about his heart 

Is dry as dust. 

A/ice Cary. 



i04 golden gems. 

Longing. 
Of all the myriad moods of mind 

That through the soul come thronging, 
Which one was e'er so dear, so kind. 

So beautiful as Longing? 
The thing we long for, that we are 

For one transcendent moment, 
Before the Present, poor and bare, 
Can make its sneering comment. 

Still, through our paltry stir and strife. 

Glows down the wished Ideal, 
And Longing molds in clay what Life 

Carves in the marble Real ; 
To let the new life in, we know. 

Desire must ope the portal ; — 
Perhaps the longing to be so, 

Helps make the soul immortal. 

Longing is God's fresh heavenward will 

With our poor earthward striving ; 
We quench it that we may be still 

Content with merely living ; 
But, would we learn that heart's full scope, 

Which we are hourly wronging, 
Our lives must climb from hope to hope, 

And realize our longing. 



GOLDEN GEMS. 10$ 

Ah ! let us hope that to our praise, 

Good God not only reckons 
The moments when we tread his ways, 

But when the spirit beckons, — 
That some slight good is also wrought 

Beyond self-satisfaction, 
When we are simply good in thought, 

Howe'er we fail in action. 

James Russell Lowell. 

Hints. 
They whose hearts are whole and strong, 

Loving holiness. 
Living clean from soil of wrong, 

Wearing truth's white dress, — 
They unto no far-off height 

Wearily need climb ; 
Heaven to them is close in sight, 

From these shores of time. 

Only the anointed eye 

Sees in common things, — 
Gleams dropped daily from the sky,— 

Heavenly blossomings. 
To the hearts where light has birth 

Nothing can be drear ; 
Budding through the bloom of earth, 

Heaven is always near. 

Lucy Larcom. 



Io6 GOLDEN GEMS. 



Time. 



Time is like a river, in which metals and solid sub- 
stances are sunk, while chaff and straws swim upon 
the surface ! Bacon. 

Life Checkered. 

As the rose-tree is composed of the sweetest flow- 
ers, and the sharpest thorns ; as the heavens are 
sometimes overcast — alternately tempestuous and 
serene — so is the life of man intermingled with hopes 
and fears, with joys and sorrows, with pleasures and 
with pains. Burton. 

Advice. 

Advice is like snow ; the softer it falls, the longer 
it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into, the mind, 

Coleridge. 

Mental Elevation. 
A .NOBLENESS and elevation of mind, together 
with firmness of constitution, gives lustre and dig- 
nity to the aspect, and makes the soul, as it were, 
shine through the body. yeremy Collier. . 

Value of Time. 
Make use of time, if thou lovest eternity ; know, 
yesterday cannot be recalled, to-morrow cannot be 



GOLDEN GEMS. I07 

assured : to-day is only thine : which, if thou pro- 
crastinate, thou losest ; which lost, is lost forever : 
one to-day is worth two to-morrows. 

Euchiridmi. 

Duties. 
Observed duties maintain our credit, but secret 
duties maintain our life. Flavel. 

Benefits of Adversity. 
No man is more miserable than he that hath no 
adversity : that man is not tried whether he be good 
or bad : and God never crowns those virtues which 
are only faculties and dispositions : but every act of 
virtue is an ingredient into reward — God so dresses 
us for heaven. jferemy Taylor. 

* Courage. 

Courage, by keeping the senses quiet, and the un- 
derstanding clear, puts us in a condition to receive 
true intelligence, to make just computations upon 
danger, and pronounce rightly upon that which 
threatens us. Innocence of life, consciousness of 
worth, and great expectations, are the best founda- 
tions of courage. These ingredients make a richer 
cordial than youth can prepare. They warm the 
heart at eighty, and seldom fail in operation. 

Collier. 



Io8 GOLDEN GEMS 



Ignorance. 



So long as thou art ignorant, be not ashamed to 
learn : he that is so fondly modest, not to acknowl- 
edge his own defects of knowledge, shall in time, be 
so foully impudent to justify his own ignorance ; ig- 
norance is the greatest of all infirmities, and, justi- 
fied, the chiefest of all follies. Quarks. 

Close of Life. 

The last act of life is sometimes like the last num- 
ber in a sum, ten times greater than all the rest. 

Collier. 

Simplicity and Purity. 

Simplicity and purity are the two wings by which 
man is lifted up above all earthly things. Simplicity 
is in the intention ; purity in the affection. Simplic- 
ity tends to God, purity apprehends and tastes him. 

Thomas a Kempis. 

Affliction. 

The truly great and good m affliction bear a coun- 
tenance more princely than they are wont : for it is 
the temper of the highest hearts, like the palm-tree, 
to strive most upwards when it is most burdened. 

S. P. Sidney. 



golden gems. io9 

Manners Contagious. 
It is certain, that either wise bearing or ignorant 
carriage, is caught, as men take diseases, one of an- 
other, therefore, let men take heed of their company. 

Shakspeare. 
Memory, 
Without memory the judgment must be unem- 
ployed, and ignorance must be the consequence. 
Pliny says it is one of the greatest gifts of nature. 

Montaigne. 
Company. 
The company in which you will improve most, 
will be the least expensive to you. Washington. 

Character. 
Actions, looks, words, steps, form the alphabet by 
which you may spell character. Lavater. 

Honor. 
He is worthy of honor, who willeth the good of 
every man ; and he is much unworthy thereof, who 
seeketh his own profit, and oppresseth others. 

Cicero. 

Pleasantry. 

An inoffensive pleasantness is a good quality to 
improve friendship. It enlivens conversation, re- 



no GOLDEN GEMS. 

lieves melancholy, and conveys advice with better 
success than naked reprehension. This gilding the 
pill reconciles the palate to the prescription, without 
weakening the force of the ingredients, and he who 
can cure by recreation, and make pleasure the vehi- 
cle of health, is a doctor in good earnest. 

E. Hall. 

Endymion. 

The rising moon has hid the stars j 
Her level rays, like golden bars, 

Lie on the landscape green, 

With shadows brown between. 

And silver white the river gleams. 
As if Diana, in her dreams, 

Had dropt her silver bow , 

Upon the meadow low. 

On such a tranquil night as this, 
She woke Endymion with a kiss. 

When, sleeping in the grove, 

He dreamed not of her love. 

Like Dian's kiss, unasked, unsought. 
Love gives itself, but is not bought ; 

Nor voice, nor sound betrays 

Its deep, impassioned gaze. 



GOLDEN GEMS. m 

It comes, — the beautiful, the free, 
The crown of all humanity, — 

In silence and alone. 

To seek the elected one. 

It lifts the boughs, whose shadows deep 
Are Life's oblivion, the souls' sleep, 

And kisses the closed eyes 

Of him who slumbering lies. 

O weary hearts ! O slumbering eyes ! 
O drooping souls, whose destinies 

Are fraught with fear and pain, 

Ye shall be loved again ! 

No one is so accursed by fate. 
No one so utterly desolate, 

But some heart, though unknown. 

Responds unto his own. 

Responds,— as if, with unseen wings, . 

An angel touched its quivering strings, 
And whispers, in its song, 
« Where hast thou stayed so long ! " 

H. W. Longfellow. 

True Love. 

True love's the gift which God has given 
To man alone beneath the heaven ; 



112 GOLDEN GEMS. 

It is not fantasy's hot fire, 

Whose wishes, soon as granted, fly ; 

It livetli not in fierce desire, 

With dead desire it doth not die ; 

It is the secret sympathy. 

The silver linl<, the silken tie. 

Which heart to heart, and mind to mind, 

In body and in soul can bind. 

Walter Scott. 

Sympathy. 
Sympathy is one of the most imposing and sacred 
emotions of an intelligent mind, and is equally con- 
sonant with the genius of refined humanity, and the 
spirit of true religion. It is inseparable from a 
truly elevated, though unsanctified mind ; for it is in 
compound of the finest and noblest feelings of our 
nature — of feelings which are characterized by all 
that is touching in tenderness and winning in benev- 
olence. To the soul it is what the lucid beams of 
the moon are to the pleasing features of nature, 
which are not essential to their existence, but which 
adds brilliancy to their beauty and sublimity to their 
grandeur. Langbridge. 

Shadow and Sunshine. 
How lovely, after a gentle rain, 
With the sun-light dancing o'er the green plain, 
Like diamonds among the grass ! 



GOLDEN GEMS. II3 

Thus life would seem but a barren plain ; 
Were it not for all the joy and pain 
God's kindness mingles therein. 

Yet, let us be cheerful and brave, 
If storms our frail bark should assail. 
With faith, ever hope on ; 

Remembering it is God's hand 
That guides His dear children ; 
And trust His kind care. 

For the sun-shine and the shower 
Brings the rain-bow and the flower, 
To gladden many sad hearts. 

Thus to chase away sadness, 
And cheer hea\y hearts with gladness, 
Forever be our great joy. 

Au Revoir. 

Oh ! solemn words, which have of all 
Leave-taking words the deepest spell ; 

From careless lips I hear them fall, 
Sounding like a prophetic knell. 
Each day in idle hearts' farewell. 

8 



114 GOLDEN GEMS. 

To meet again ! Ah ! yes ; again 
Life's chances may together bring 

These two who thoughtless part. But when ? 
The leaves which wild winds toss and fling, 
Of years keep slender reckoning. 

To meet again ! Ah ! yes ; but where ? 
They both tread flowers and dance to-day; 

But winter winds chill summer air, 
And earth has places dark and gray, 
Whence flowers and song have passed away. 

To meet again ! Ah ! if God will, 
With health and youth their veins are red ; 

But grave-stones gleam on every hill, 
And burial services are said 
Each day above the early dead. 

O hearts ! these solemn words of all 
Leave-taking words have deepest spell ; 

In tender whisper let them fall ; 

And lest they prove prophetic knell. 
Add reverent prayer to each farewell ! 

Author unknown. 



^■>%.;--.v^-^ 






■-iMv ,■ 













